Where NY taxpayers go

Most New Yorkers believe taxes don't matter much when people choose where to live and executives decide where to locate their businesses. In particular, a lot of people tell me that I emphasize the role of taxes too much in my writing.

A new study from the Tax Foundation of state-to-state migration data gives some support to my argument.

The foundation researched the movement of taxpayers between states for the decade 2000 to 2010. In that period, New York state had the largest loss of income ($45.6 billion) followed by California and Illinois.

The biggest gains were recorded by Florida (an impressive $67.3 billion) with Arizona in second place at $17.7 billion and Texas at $17.6 billion. All three have much lower tax burdens than New York, which had the highest tax burden in the most recent study. (New York always ranks in the top 3.)

I analyzed the states that gained the most from luring New York taxpayers and it is pretty obvious that New Yorkers seek areas with lower tax burdens. The exception, of course is New Jersey, with a high tax burden but lower costs in other ways.

True, all the states gaining New Yorkers are less costly to live in or do business in that New York, but taxes are a key factor in why.

Where NY taxpayers move

State

Net gain of NY taxpayers

Tax burden rank

Fla.

301,231

27

NJ

143,555

2

NC

97,327

17

Ga.

61,403

33

Pa.

55,854

10

Source: Tax Foundation

Especially interesting is that New York had a net loss of taxpayers to 48 of the 50 states. Over the decade, more taxpayers moved to New York from only Illinois and Iowa than New Yorkers moved to those states.

However, consider the numbers this way. New York lost 1,020,894 taxpayers in that period. The gain from those two states was a mere 4,081.

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